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September 30, 2013| When did peace become a peripheral issue? How can ministers read the Gospels and think peace is an optional topic? When Jesus preached, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he included preachers... When ministers are afraid to speak prophetically about peace they fail to be a voice for the Prince of Peace. Read more »

September 27, 2013| On Sunday, September 15, 3013 in Walnut Creek, California, a handmade peace pole was dedicated at Shell Ridge Community Church, a long-time Partner Congregation of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America (BPFNA). The peace pole was a project for Matthew Adams to acquire his Eagle Scout Award. Read more »

September 25, 2013| We can end hunger. What we lack is the political will. Children and adults go hungry in the world, not because we don’t have enough food, but because alleviating world hunger has not ranked high among the list of priorities of the rich nations of the world. This is not a human problem that we can’t figure out; it is not a disease that would require a revolution in agriculture or science. Those revolutions have already occurred. What is needed, as Martin Luther King, Jr. so accurately expressed 50 years ago, is a “revolution of values.” Read more »

September 9, 2013| I’m feeling confused in general these days, especially about the threatened attack on Syria. We have a President who was elected in part because of his criticism of the war in Iraq, and a Secretary of State who had a hard time, originally, getting elected to the US Senate because earlier in his life he was an outspoken critic of the war in Vietnam. These two public figures are dual drum majors in the march to war with Syria, while many Republican war hawks are saying “hold on, not so fast.” Read more »

August 30, 2013| For me, there's something incredibly compelling and inviting about the BPFNA's mission statement. Gathering lies at the heart of what it means to be the church and, in spite of our fierce defense of the principles of individual freedom, at the heart of what it means to be Baptist too... And the statement speaks poetically and meaningfully of that calling – to build a culture of peace rooted in justice… to change the world. Read more »

August 1, 2013| I want to add a final word of my own to these perspectives on daily bread. Throughout today’s service the songs and readings have referred to bread in various symbolic ways. My symbolic word would be to add the bread of compassion. I know this gets away from Lukan practicality, but I have been wrestling with the disparate responses to the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case. I recognize the verdict as legal under the existing laws of the state of Florida, but I am troubled by the ethos that placed those same laws on the books, that encourages a man to patrol his neighborhood at night with a loaded gun, that targets another man because of his skin color and dress. I know the defense of and outrage over the verdict breaks down along racial lines. We continue to live in a country and culture that is deeply racist. This case along with that of Oscar Grant and others has helped to blow the cover off our hidden racism. Along with elements of the debate over immigration reform, the breadth and depth of our lingering racism has been exposed. We cannot continue to live like this – in fear, mistrust, hatred and hurting. Read more »

August 1, 2013| As “white” parents of “black” children through transracial adoption, we have become quite aware of our skin privilege...We US Americans live in a country where browner bodies have less value than paler bodies, where a dark-skinned Marissa Alexander can be sentenced in Florida to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot in front of her abusive ex-husband; while a lighter-skinned George Zimmerman can pursue an unarmed dark-skinned teenager, provoke a confrontation, and shoot him to death and be found “not guilty”. This is the world into which we send our boys. Read more »